SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

Portsmouth and Liverpool kick-off the latest round of Premier League fixtures on the last weekend of top-flight action before Christmas Day. Elsewhere amidst the festive fixture schedule, leaders Chelsea make the short trip to London rivals West Ham United on Sunday, Fulham host champions Manchester United eyeing a repeat of last season's surprise scalp, Hull City boss Phil Brown will receive an interesting reception at Arsenal on Saturday evening, Manchester City tackle an out-of-form Sunderland outfit while high-flying Tottenham Hotspur head to Blackburn Rovers.

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho wants to leave a controversial week behind him and guide his team to victory at home against Lazio this weekend. Elsewhere, Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara will be under enormous pressure to take a positive result at home against rock-bottom Catania on Sunday.

Real Madrid will look to close the five-point gap to leaders Barcelona at the top of La Liga when they host Real Zaragoza at Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday. Elsewhere, fourth-placed Valencia seek to bounce back from defeat against Real Madrid as they travel to face Deportivo, while lowly Malaga target just their second win of the season when they host Mallorca.

The exclusive! The sort of thing that every journalist dreams about but almost never delivers. In the world of modern media, an "exclusive" is almost as rare as a defender's hat-trick or a tasty brown banana.

And yet last week we had one. There weren't any clandestine meetings or weeks of research, but it was a bona fide exclusive nevertheless. A "you can hear the rest of that interview on Football Focus" jaffa.

Jose Mourinho will return to Chelsea with Internazionale in the last 16 of the Champions League, while David Beckham also has the chance of a reunion with Manchester United after last season's beaten finalists were drawn against AC Milan.

Bobby Zamora continued his hot run as Fulham secured their place in the knockout stages of the Europa League at the expense of Basle. Second-half goals from Mika Vayrynen, Viktor Elm, Gerald Sibon (two) and Darryl Janmaat won the game at a canter for the hosts, but it proved not to be enough as Hertha Berlin did the necessary against Sporting Lisbon.

"Sometimes you've just got to go."Former Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann explains why he spent a penny during Stuttgart's game with Unirea Urziceni.

"Hope it all goes well - people will be surprised to know you have a heart!"Sam Allardyce reveals the text sent to him by old mucker Kenny Dalglish before the Blackburn boss underwent minor heart surgery.

"When you go to a World Cup, it's like going to war. When you go to war, you don't take your wife."South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira questions the old English WAG culture.

"At Arsenal he told me he'd played in nine World Cups - and he was only 23!"Ray Parlour on Kanu, who claims to be 33 but is reckoned to be much older.

"I will never forget my first game for England at the World Cup, it was against Turkey... no I mean Tunisia."David Seaman on Sky Sports.

"Dirty cheat Cannavaro stepped on Barreto's right foot as he tried to go past him in the box and Baretto took a dive to make sure he won a penalty. He sent Buffon the wrong way. Juve blew three early second half chances to equalise before Grosso repeated his trick against Australia and went over Almiron's legs as he dived in with a suicidal tackle. Big match bottler Diego was flashed with one of those laser torches just before he took his penalty, which he sent into the stands. Don't expect him to play for Brazil anytime soon."

Please don't split on me, but I was moonlighting during the World Cup draw. I had been invited to supply running commentary (read: incoherent ramblings made bearable only by the odd hilarious typo) for another website alongside roughly a dozen other writers from all over the world, including Englishmen exiled in Bangkok and Berlin.

However, Lehmann lost his temper and stamped on Mainz attacker Aristide Bance after collecting a cross. The referee spotted the incident and decided to send Lehmann off and award Mainz a spot kick, which was converted by Eugen Polanski.